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I'm really confused by this data. How could the average cost of the most expensive model be less than the cost of the most expensive brand? For example, I'm ta
by tobyjsullivan 10y ago
I'm really confused by this data. How could the average cost of the most expensive model be less than the cost of the most expensive brand?
For example, I'm taking issue with all BMW's costing $17,800 over 10 years on average. Yet, the BMW model with the highest maintenance cost, the 328i, only costs $15,600 over 10 years.
Edit: Tried, quite unsuccessfully, to improve clarity
- Jupe 10y agoEver priced an intake manifold (or are they using plenums now?) for a BMW? The parts alone set you back a pretty penny, then there is labor.
- maxerickson 10y agoGasket failure is way more common than the manifold failing though (and it's a little harder to justify enormous prices for a gasket).
- honkhonkpants 10y agoWhy would a car need a new intake manifold?
- Jupe 10y agoIt happens. My Wife's car needed a new intake plenum (it was an Mazda, not a BMW) $750. I priced for my Ford Fusion: $150 for a manifold. The point is parts for imports here in the states are generally much higher.
- tobyjsullivan 10y agoI may have miscommunicated but I wasn't concerned with the realism of the costs - I was questioning the relation of the values. If you have two sets of numbers, S and T, then I'm quite confident MEAN(S ∪ T) must fall between MIN(MEAN(S), MEAN(T)) and MAX(MEAN(S), MEAN(T)) inclusive. In this case, the costs of maintenance for a given vehicle model are the sets and, so, the cost for a brand as a whole would be (S ∪ T ∪ V...).
- Jupe 10y agoYeah, I got ya now. The problem is that repairs can continue. $450 for brakes? Ok. $800 for tires + alignment. $125 for a new battery. $600 to replace a bent rim and it's pair. When data like this indicates that the maintenance cost of BMWs or other vehicles is higher, it's not just a question of quality: many times the parts + labor are just more expensive.
- runT1ME 10y agoNo, you don't. He's saying the math doesn't add up in terms of how they calculated the mean of the brand and the 'highest' avg. mean of the models (in that brand).
- Jupe 10y agoYes, I do... the single model 328i, if it is in fact the worst of the BMW models, should be above the average cost of the BMW models. According to the first table, it isn't. They made a mistake.
- busterarm 10y agoWhy don't you ask a recent BMW owner about spark plug & coil replacement cost sometime. Even mention ignition coils around some of them and there will be much cursing.
- adrianpike 10y agoHi, recent BMW owner. The dealership changed my coils out of warranty for free. Maybe I got lucky, but you rarely hear people's good experiences, and you often hear the bad ones.
- nealyoung 10y agoAlso, there's absolutely no way that the 328i is the most expensive BMW model. It's probably the most reliable (and highest volume) model sold in the US, and maintenance is cheap compared to the M-model and V8/V12 cars that BMW sells.
- mrwiggleworth 10y agoBMW has many more expensive models than the 3 series models. 5, 7, 8s are all much more expensive. Perhaps that is how the average 10 year cost is greater than the 328s?
- nealyoung 10y agoSure, but shouldn't the 5/6/7 series then appear as the highest-cost models rather than the 328i?
- mrwiggleworth 10y agoThe article doesn't really explain things very well. Why did they only pick those 20 models to compare? I think they are all in the same price range? This is probably appealing to "mainstream" models, rather than enthusiast or luxury models.
- mdip 10y agoI was wondering a bit about this, myself. Also, the costs on some of the more extreme ends of the luxury markets are higher for pretty much everything. My parents own an Audi convertible sports toy. They had to have the clutch[0] replaced last year at a cost of almost $5,000. Oil changes run $100. Audi was high on the list, yes, but other luxury brands weren't that have similarly expensive repair/maintenance costs. [0] For Americans, where Manual Transmission is much like the Big Foot. You hear about it, but nobody's actually seen it, this is a part of a Manual Transmission car that wears out over time and is guaranteed to require repair.
- mmarx 10y ago> I'm really confused by this data. How could the average cost of the most expensive model be less than the cost of the most expensive brand? It's because the brand estimates are not based on actual costs, but only on oil changes: “In order to estimate annual maintenance costs, we found the amount spent on every two oil changes (as oil changes are generally done every six months).” Yet the actual oil change intervals for at least BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and Volvo are between once a year and once every two years, or after between 7500 and 15000 miles, depending on the brand and model.